Of Salvaged Blades and Otherworldly Beings
by Chaos-Sableye
Summary: Why is all of this happening? First a bright ass flash of light on the way home with the family, and now i'm in a world where people come from gems and we're all above the clouds! What isn't weird here?
1. Chapter 1

Of Salvaged Blades and Otherworldly Beings

Chapter 1:

"Ugh, what hit me?" was the first words to come out of my mouth as I forced myself into a kneeling stance.

It was strange, to say the least of it. Waking up in a strange, and apparently empty from a lack of any verbal response, room with my face against the metal floor? Not exactly comforting to think about. Worse yet, my body feels like it got hit by a speeding oil tanker or something, 'cause everything hurts and I have a migraine that's making it abnormally difficult to think.

As I used one of my hands in a slightly vain attempt at alleviating the echoes of agony running rampant in my skull, I eventually decide to study my surroundings to see if I could figure out what my situation was.

The iron-clad room I found myself in was very spacious, rather oddly so, which left me befuddled since most of the room was devoid of anything. My only guess could have been that it might be a storage room, were it not for what was right in front of me. In the middle of the room is a small platform over what looked like a pit of light that is the only source of illumination in the room. Upon the platform is the central pillar of the room. The room had a light amount of fog rolling along the ground, and the air in the room was so humid I felt like I might as well be breathing water. Finally, on the complete opposite side of the room, there stood a tall, and very wide door with a large blue crest near the center that was likely a button of some kind. As my eyes adjusted to the lighting, I noticed the walls and floor of the room had a sea blue tint to it.

After a moment of getting my head on straight, I decided to check the backpack that I still had on me for some reason. Not that I think I shouldn't have it, but with how I mysteriously ended up in this room, I was curious as to how I didn't lose the bag somehow. Digging through it, I mentally listed off the items I found inside.

Medkit? Check

3 large ziploc bags of beef jerky? Check

IPhone with chargers? Check, but no service.

Aviator shades? Check

Toothbrush, toothpaste and deodorant? Check

Dark green Hydro Flask? Check

Revolver and ammo that some drunk dropped on the floor at the casino that I was going to toss in secret when I got the chance? Also check, and now I'm keeping it on me in case of emergency. A shame to whoever dropped it, a colt python in good condition is a rarity these days.

Forest camo wallet? Check, but nothing in it, so no money, and no ID. Welp, looks like I know what went missing in the process.

After I took the revolver out and put it in my pocket, for easy quick draw if need be, I tried to stand up, finding my balance in the process. Once I could stand without my knees buckling, I started walking around the pit of light in the middle of the room, toward the large door.

When I got to the door, I studied the crest on the door. It poked out like a button, but something about the crest itself got me curious. Not like it was an overly complicated or intricate crest, it being a circle around the image of a flame, but it gave off a weird vibe of some kind. As if I was drawn to it like the character of a dark souls game, I slowly reached for the button with some hesitation. The second my hand touched it though, I immediately drew it back because of a painful zap from the contact.

Nursing my now twitching hand, I stared at the crest with a certainty. This door likely only opened to whoever either bore the same crest, or was of the same lineage as the person whom this crest represents. Judging by the fact my hand is now writhing of its own agony, I'm not one of those people. That means that, until someone that fills that criteria comes along and opens this door, I'm basically stuck in this room with not a single damned way out.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." I sighed in spite as I turn around and slumped to the ground with my back against the door. "Trapped in a room with no way out, and not even a single damned person around that could possibly open the door."

I could try being hopeful, but that doesn't look like it'll be helping me anytime soon. As I simply sit in front of what is essentially the door to a prison I won't be getting out of anytime at all, I try to recall the events that led up to this.

It was supposed to be simple, a trip to Los Vegas with the 'ohana to end start off the New Year. We were having the time of our lives, and with one of our cousins from the mainland to boot. I was hoping the memories would last as we drove to the airport, when a giant flash of white seemed to engulf the world, then everything went dark, and now I find myself waking up in a room I have no idea about with not even one member of my family around to talk to. I don't know which one of life's toes I stepped on during the last year, but apparently, she decided to fuck around with me afterwards.

As soon as I looked up from my position on the floor though, two things in front of me made me question both my sanity for what I was seeing, and how dumb I was for not noticing them before.

The more obvious one is that there just so happens to be a large, double edged red sword stabbed into the floor in front of the tube on the middle platform. Not just the guard being red- no, the ENTIRE sword was red from blade to pommel. A precariously cross shaped emerald crystal in the shape of a rosario was embedded into the cross-guard of the blade. From the cross-guard down extended a thin yellow hilt with a red hand guard circling down toward, and connecting to, the pommel. There was a strange split down the middle of the blade that I couldn't really figure out a reason for, my only guess being that it had a similar function to a sai in which to catch a blade and either pry it from someone's hands or snap it in twain, and three 'teeth' were cut into the top portion of the blade near the base. An oddity about the sword is that the blade was triangular in overall shape, leaving much of its large surface area, which was wide at the base and tipped into twin prongs where the blade split in the center, flat as a paddle. I could even scarcely make out some mechanical parts in-between the two halves of the blade, but I can't really figure out what they're for from a distance. Why on earth someone would just leave a random sword in a room like this is not a question worth overlooking, and a curiosity worth looking at.

The other thing I noticed, which immediately answered my lingering question, was that there was a PERSON inside the oddly placed cylindrical object behind the sword.

A fair skinned, short haired, red headed girl lay silently inside the apparent stasis pod, which actually looked like a comfy pod on the inside. A small tiara of some kind with a green gem embedded into it rested on the girl's head, two green gem earrings dangling down from her ear lobes. From where I could see, she likely stood at around 5'4", average height. While that was normal, the rest would mentally chuck a normal man's head through a ring of fire.

Her clothing looks so skimpy and outlandish that I'm pretty sure I wanted to slap myself to double check whether what I was seeing was real or not. Her outfit, if I could even could it that, hugged her curvaceous frame rather tightly, as it looked like it would have been a pain for any normal girl to put on, much less work up the courage to wear in public without fearing the attention and any possible wardrobe failure.

Her clothing consisted of a deep crimson under mesh that, like the lighter red armor over it, only covered her upper torso, her shoulders, her neck, and down the front of her midriff, leaving her back and the sides of said midriff exposed. This was accompanied by what is likely the absolute shortest pair of "booty shorts"/"butt floss" i've ever seen, being held up by thin red garter belts that wrapped around her hips, only there to accent her hourglass form it seems, and likely hooked to the back with golden clamps like in the front. Red shoulder pads accented with golden pieces adorned her shoulders, golden clamps keeping some of the layered armor attached over the body mesh, though only along the sides, as the body mesh was clearly visible down the middle of her body except for around her neck. She wears red boots that reach just above her knees with black stockings that stick out just an inch higher, and black fingerless gloves with armor over the top that extends a little past her wrists like a gauntlet from the golden piece with a green gem embedded into it.

She seemed to be in a deep sleep, seeing as she didn't respond to my earlier inquiry as to my location, and the fact that she didn't wake up from my cry of pain due to the shock from the door. She's simply laying back inside the comfy pod in deep slumber, her hands resting over her chest in a rather peaceful manner. I was almost curious as to how she felt comfortable sleeping in that outfit, but I wasn't one to pry on such a thing.

After all, i'm just a dark skinned Hawaiian dude wearing a dark green tank top with black cargo shorts and a simple pair of black slippas, or "flip-flops" as the mainlanders call them, so I couldn't possibly understand how much dedication she had to that outfit that she would sleep in it. I also had my good luck necklace on, consisting of a sky blue dream catcher and a cait shelter guild amulet hanging from the middle. The symbol of the guild being a cat with only its right eye carved out and two tails, one normal curving up with the other disembodied tail connecting to the first in such a way that both tails formed a sideways S.

Seeing as the girl in the middle of the room might just be my only ticket out of here, I stood myself up, after I checked that my hand stopped having a self-inflicted aneurism, and had only just started walking toward her, when I heard what sounded like a cargo bay door opening behind me. I wasted no time turning on a dime toward the door, but it hadn't been opened. Considering this fact with the very lightly muffled sound I heard, there was only one conclusion I could come to. I swiftly hid myself bit off to the right of the doorway, pressing my back against the wall, as much as I could with my backpack on, and waited with baited breath.

As I had suspected, the door opened soon after, the crest on the door glowing as it opened to signify that someone worth was opening it, and from the doorway came…A kid?

Of all things I could have possibly expected to come into the room, a 5 foot tall white kid with short brown hair wearing a blue and gold diver suit surely wasn't what I was expecting. Interestingly, some of the suit seemed removable at certain parts, namely around the torso and between the legs. The only parts that could be recognized as the suit were an unbuttoned vest hinged to a helmet that dangled behind him, the large brown gloves with something attached to the back of his left glove, the air canister that was fastened to his back by overlapping belts, and large trouser style leggings that covered the outer area of his legs alongside large steel-toed boots. Underneath the suit peaces he wore a simple sleeveless, legless blue body mesh that covered his torso.

Another thing I wasn't expecting a girl around the same height as the first kid, to walk in after the diver kid in a full yellow onesie suit, fair skin and short silver hair with- wait, are those ACTUAL CAT EARS on her head?! Also, why the hell is there an ARMORED WHITE TIGER walking next to her?!

Shaking off that train of thought before it started getting weirder then need be, I noticed the next three to enter the room were more along the lines of what I was anticipating.

The first of the three was a man standing at about 5'11" clad in black samurai styled, layered plate armor from neck to toe, his head having no helmet, and his gloves are fingerless, which revealed pale skin and short black hair spiked up in what I could only describe as a really short cow lick, his side burns reaching down to the sides of his face.

The second one was, for lack of better description, a hunched over lizard man with sickly navy-blue skin dressed in black egyptian styled robes and armor with gold trimming. A black helmet with a gold faceplate covered the head of the hunched over monstrosity, gauntlets over clawed hands and anklets over equally clawed feet. The oddest thing about the creature is the weird blue crystal seemingly embedded into its golden chest armor, blue lines leading from said crystal flow along the body, almost as if it were a machine even though it is clearly flesh and bone. Worse yet, if the creatures stance wasn't hunched over with its knees bended, it would likely stand even taller than the cow licked man who entered previously.

The last, but certainly not least, was a guy who gave off a weird vibe. Standing tall at 6'4, pale skinned, white spikey neck length hair, wears a metal masquerade mask and similar armor to the first guy, but white around the legs, boots, fingerless gloves and shoulders, with something akin to the ends of a trench coat hanging down from the armor on his waist past his knees. Interestingly, the armor was sleeveless, leaving the man's toned forearms out for all to see. The name Sephiroth pops into my mind just looking at him, and the more I look, more I understand why.

While it was weird that these four people, and one monster, would possibly come here on random notice, it didn't take much to see that all of them, even the two kids, were armed with weapons.

The kid in the diver suit had a folded up curved long sword strapped to the back of his waistline, while the cat girl apparently preferred dual chakrams as her weapons of choice, strapped to her left hip for good measure. The guy in the black armor had a handle for some sort of weapon attached to his hip, but if there was a blade attached at some point it isn't there now. Finally, and I had my suspicions as to why, the tall dude in the mask had a long katana strapped to his back.

I don't really feel like giving them any reason to hunt me down, since it appears that the girl is what their after, and because they didn't seem to be looking for me in particular from what I could tell, so I do my best to sneak back to the now open door, making sure to keep my foot falls quiet enough that the cat girl wouldn't immediately pick up on it. Once I got close enough to the doorway, I rounded the corner and started tip-toeing backwards, doing my best to keep my eyes on them.

I would have gotten away without anything happening, 'til the kid in the diver suit decided to get a little too close to the sword.

"Hey, brat! Don't even think about touching that!" the guy in the black armor shouted in anger, but the warning twas in vain, as the kid touched the sword, resulting in green particles exploding out of it. Before the kid had time to regret whatever he might have just done, the man in the mask grabbed the hilt of his katana, seemingly teleported behind the kid, and turned the kid's body into a kabob upon his blade. AKA, he just stabbed the kid, and I wasn't sticking around to find out what happens next.

So, taking the smart way, I immediately decided to haul ass before the guy turned around to notice me, by immediately bolting in what I could only assume was the way to the exit.

A guy who could flash step with a katana as long as he is tall? I'm not going to risk that coming to get me.

As I ran, I didn't really have much time to take in the surroundings I fled past, since I was just busy getting myself the hell out of dodge before the masked freak figured out he missed one. There were a lot of stairs though, along with sea creature corpses that I didn't even recognize. No time to think though, busy running for dear life.

As I ran up another flight of stairs, I could hear foot falls echoing from somewhere in the direction I was running from, which immediately was the opposite of what I wanted. That meant that the cat girl probably heard me when I started running and let the mask maniac know someone else had seen what they did. My mind racing with a bit of panic, I kept running with the adrenaline rush. I didn't care if my lungs were in pain from the abnormal breathing, I didn't bother to notice if my legs were screaming bloody murder in agony major. I just needed to escape, and fast. I was not about to let that masquerade renegade and his loony toon squadron catch me.

Hope seemed to shine down on me right then, because after coming up one final set of stairs, I saw an exit to this labyrinth of a place. As soon as I ran out into the open, and made a stop near the center of the area, three realizations struck me as I looked around.

First off, I found myself on the deck of a ship. A giant, black, ship. Well, I guess that would explain some of the interiors design.

Second… was that there was now a crowd of what appeared to be humans and short, currently indescribable due to the adrenaline causing my brain to race a mile a minute, beings in diver suits, all now staring at me from my sudden appearance.

Finally, and though this seemed minor to everyone else, it was storming like crazy. I don't know how I didn't hear it on my way to the exit, but I could feel it now and it felt rather wonderful to be frank.

Feeling some of the adrenaline leave my legs, that I could only now recognize were in searing pain, I fell to my knees, and I was likely about to keel over and faint from the amount of wheezing I was doing, if not for someone's voice catching my attention.

"You ok there?" I heard someone ask, likely coming toward me as the sound of foot falls indicated. "You ran like you'd just seen a ghost or something."

I looked up toward the man who was speaking, and was surprised to find him being the only one without his helmet on in this currently stormy weather. He wasn't overly complicated to look at, a bald black dude with sturdy facial features. Although he had a slight accent I couldn't quite place.

After I'd managed to get some of my breath back, I had no doubt as to what I should be saying. "You would to… if you'd just seen someone get run through with a katana."

"Someone in the ship got stabbed?!" The man explained in surprise.

"Yeah… a kid in a blue diver suit…. Got to close to whatever they were searching for down there, and apparently the masked maniac didn't like that all too much." I informed as I started to get my breath back. I noticed a stark silence the second those words left my mouth, but I didn't stop there. "I don't know why he did it, but I wasn't risking being next on his hit list, and I don't think any of us should get involved with this either."

"No, we shouldn't" the man agreed all too easily. He then turned to the crowd around us. "MEN, listen up! We're moving out, so get back to the Maelstrom and get ready because we're not letting them back onto the ship!"

"Sir Yes Sir!" and with that, everyone started crossing a thin boarding plank toward another ship which was docked beside the one we were on. Looking at it, the ship, while magnificent to enthusiasts, looked like quite the roughed-up piece of work. Patchwork could be seen on multiple parts of the ship, but it looked sturdy enough to hold all the people now swarming back to it. Efficient, but not too fancy, something I can appreciate.

"Where do you all think you're all going?!" Or at least, I COULD have appreciated it, if they hadn't shown back up after a few minutes into it.

Turning around, I see that the masked murderer and his two cronies are now standing half way across the ship from us. These guys were already starting to get on my shit list, and that's normally not something that happens so easily. I guess that's just what happens when the stress of being stuck in a room with no knowledge of my family, alongside seeing a kid get shish kabobbed will do to ya.

The black armored cow lick man was standing to the right of the katana wielding maniac; over his shoulder he carried the pod that held the girl from inside that sealed room, confirming my suspicion that she was the one these three were after. His partner in crime, the humanoid reptilian in egyptian style armor, standing just off to his right.

The cat girl, and her tiger, were both standing to the left of the masked man in the middle, probably giving a smug smirk- wait… she's not smiling? On second glace, she… looks like she's feeling guilty. Well, at least someone in their group didn't exactly appreciate their 'leader' feeling stabby.

"We just got back, and you all are already leaving? What, did you all decide to chicken out?" Mr. Cow lick attempted to berate us.

"No." I answered plainly, hopefully drawing their attention enough to give the others enough time to get out onto the boat. "We all simply recognized that there would likely be nothing good left on this ship after you got what you wanted, so we're getting ready to set sail."

I was making this up as I go, but it's better than nothing. As much as I absolutely detest lying, even I must admit, in only the rarest cases, that it has its uses. I was none too worried though, as he seemed to have bought it.

"Good sense, but I'm afraid we can't let you go."

"Really now? On what terms?"

"The fact that the price for your lives has already been paid."

"Hah, I've heard better one liners from a mud crab. Why don't you try looking up some new quotes after you get your hair to stop trying to peal itself off your head eh? Don't worry, owl wait." I could feel a cheshire grin playfully molding into place on to my face. _'gods, why can't I resist making puns right now?'_

"Why you little-!" and he would have finished that statement while probably flying into a rage, were it not for the sides of the pod he was holding suddenly combusting into flames. With a startled cry of "W-what the-?!" he chucked the pod behind his group.

I was immediately concerned for a few reasons. The main ones being; _'How is the girl going to survive being on FIRE?!'_ and _'how did the pod catch fire in the middle of a STORM?!'_

Didn't really have to wait long for my answer, because only a few seconds after the pod dropped to the ground, it erupted into a pillar of fire, from which a ball of flame separated and perched itself atop a spike pointing skyward. The spectacle alone looked impressive, but as the flames began to die out, I saw something that truly left me speechless. Now standing atop the spike, flames licking at the very air around her as if she were a phoenix newly reborn, is the girl that had just before been sleeping inside the now truly charred pod. With her hands no longer hiding the area just above her chest region, she appeared to have rosario with an X shape cut out of the middle made from an emerald crystal imbedded into the area of her chest piece that was once covered by her hands while she was asleep.

Everyone still on the ship stared on either in aw, or in disbelief. However, the craziness wasn't over, not by a long shot.

As if the pod hadn't just been subject to enough torture for one day, the ground underneath it suddenly started lighting up, and heating up, in a large circle around it. With not a second left for it to say its piece, the ground exploded upward into a massive column of fire, having built up heat from the lower levels of the ship, shooting into the sky. The flames were so intense in both brightness and heat at this point that I felt like I had to cover my face to prevent getting my eyes scorched out.

After a few moments, the flames died down to simple sparks and cinders, licking the edges of the hole that was now burned into the deck of the ship and likely the lower levels, and a loud 'THUD' of something landing rang out from the silence that fallowed. Moving my arms away from my face is all I needed to be completely baffled- no, outright confused as hell.

There, right in front of the newly flame carved hole in the deck of the ship that was somehow still lit lightly by very persistent flames, is the kid in the blue diver suit. As the kid sat there on his knees, taking a moment to catch his breath, it was very easy to notice the sword, the same one that was in the sealed room, was now in his hand. He now also, as I know I didn't see it on him before, sported a green gem in the shape of an X on his bare chest. Not on a necklace, not hanging down from some invisible choker, a gem literally emblazoned into the kid's skin. While that was a major oddity, it didn't hold my attention much.

What had me stunned however, was both the fact that the kid was somehow alive, and the new appearance the sword in his hand now took. It kept the overall qualities it had before; red parted blade with teeth at the base of the top blade, thin golden handle with red hand guard, and green cross shaped gem embedded into the cross-guard. What made it different now, is that there were now thin, concentrated spouts of FIRE now coming out from the serration gaps and the split in the blade, said split having parted a bit to allow the flame coming from it to manifest as a burning blade, extending the swords effective range by a very large margin.

While my brain took it's time processing how in the living hell the sword wasn't burning from the heat, and the complete mystery of how the kid survived what very much looked like being impaled through the heart, if not at least one of his lungs, the world decided to move on while my mind lagged.

"Rex?!" I heard the cat girl call out in surprise.

' _So that's the kid's name huh?'_ I thought in passing, since now I had a name to at least one of these faces. The guy in the black armor however, wasn't so happy to see him though.

"You!" he shouted, rage steeping every letter. "And that sword. Can't be!"

As the diver boy, Rex as the kitty in the yellow onesie called him, rose to his feet, he pointed the sword in his hand towards to group with a determined expression plastered onto his face. "It's kinda low to stab a man in the back… You bloody psychopath!"

' _Yep, the British are coming. Now that I think about it, that Nekomata in the onesie suit also sounded a bit British, though slightly different.'_ Such an observation was minor, but it helped define them a bit for me.

Rex then turns toward the girl standing upon the spire above him and calls out to her. "Pyra! Cover me!"

"Got it!" the newly dubbed Pyra responds, prompting the blue diver boy into immediately charging with a battle cry towards the masked freak and his two buddies while she jumped down from her position, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the flash stepping katana wielder is the one who stabbed him before.

It seemed like the events of not even an hour, as far as I could tell, were about to play the same ending tune once more, the masked man reaching for his katana to play said note, before the cow lick in black armor decided to step ahead of his co-hort. "Jin, Leave 'em to me."

' _Lots of name drops, much wow.'_ I thought sarcastically, as I now had the name of the masquerading murderer archived in my mind for future reference. All I need now is the names for miss kitty and the man in cow licked black and I'll have figured out who falls into anime stereotype 1-4.

Deciding to watch this spiel for a few seconds more, giving my brain time to process this overload of info properly, I saw Rex try to swing his blade down upon his armored foe, only for said opponent to deftly grab the weapon hilt at his waist and bring it up in a guarding motion as- oh what the hell! Since when to random blade handles create blades of blue ethereal energy with a flick of the wrist?!

Either way, Rex's attack was blocked, and them locking blades with each other means that their distracted, which means the perfect chance to start exiting the premises, Stage Bridge. I looked back towards the bridge, only to find that some of the people that were evacuating had stopped to stare at the surprise fight that was now occurring. This immediately ticked me off.

"Don't just stand there! Keep going!" That seemed to shake them out of their stupor, as they immediately went back to crossing the bridge and making it onto the other boat; The Maelstrom I believe the captain had called out in passing.

I turned my attention back to the now ensuing fight, and started backing up slowly toward the bridge connecting this ship to The Maelstrom; keeping my eyes acutely aware, and my hand over the pocket where I put my revolver in case one of them decided to turn around and notice everyone else evacuating.

"Give it a rest Malos! Can't you see he's just a child?!" _'Thanks for the name drop kitty, where's yours?'_

"A Child? Don't Make me laugh!" says the armored cow lick man having a standoff with said child, where's your excuse? "This kid… has made himself the Aegis' Driver!"

' _Driver? How in the frozen hell does one drive a sword?!'_ It sounded like a load of crap, but something tells me this place isn't exactly following normal rules. As I watched the ongoing dance of blades, I couldn't help but notice the fight between Pyra and the lizard man in the background. As it seems obvious that Pyra and Rex are now working as partners, it seems more than likely that Malos and the monster lizard were partners as well. Another thing that came to mind was something about what this 'Malos' character mentioned.

' _Aegis…'_ my mind was a train wreck when that word came to the forefront. The last time I checked the 'Aegis' was an impenetrable shield that existed in greek mythology. The problem that caught my mind like a fly to a bug zapper, was that what he's referring to when saying 'Aegis' definitely does not seem to be a shield of any sort, but the sword Rex is now using.

Shaking off that thought for now, I focused my attention back to the battle between the two swordsmen. It seemed like an even matchup at the start, sparks danced around the two swordsman with each clash of their blades. Eventually however, Malos, seemingly being a more experienced fighter, got the upper hand and sent Rex flying, in my direction, with a solid kick to the gut.

' _Should I risk catching the kid or- fuck it, I'm probably in hot water for my last comment anyway.'_ Mind made up, I widened my stance like a soccer goalie and caught the diver suited tike midflight; the momentum pushing me back a bit, but not enough to tip me over.

"No flying lessons for you yet kid, you're not old enough yet." I said with a small grin as I put Rex down on his feet.

"Who are-?"

"No time for that now dude" I interrupted him while pointing towards the lizardman that had jumped to catch the weapon Malos threw into the air. The second the egyptian creature feature was at the height of his jump, with blade in hand, he crossed his arms before making a slashing motion with both arms, sending condensed blades of wind at us.

Thinking fast, I grabbed Rex around the waist and jumped back, just barely dodging the blades as they slammed against the ground with explosive force. The force of the explosion of wind that followed pushed us as I jumped, leading to me slamming back first against the wall, but other than the slight ring of pain down my spine I didn't feel much worse for wear.

"You've still got someone who has a bone to pick with you." I reiterate for Rex as a put him down. "You go deal with the armored lunatic, I'll make sure everyone else gets out alive."

Rex seemed to get the message, as I saw him nod before taking his battle stance and immediately charging back into battle. Pyra, the red headed girl who was fighting the blue lizard man, regrouped with Rex during this time due to her combatant braking away from her earlier and ran parallel to him towards their target. Said lizard man, who was still holding the weapon at this time, fired off two more wind blades in an attempt to slow the advancing brunette and red head pair, only for Pyra to move in front of Rex and placing her hand out in front of her, somehow blocking the attack with an invisible force field that, when struck, appeared as a set of yellow hexagonal pieces formed into the shape of a thin dome-like shield. This protection proved sufficient, as it allowed Rex to close the distance without much hassle.

' _Huh'_ I found myself thinking as I watched what seemed like Pyra's means of defending her partner. _'Is she the one who's being called the Aegis? Rather weirdly round-about way of thinking about it if you ask me.'_

As the clash between the two swordsmen resumed, the egyptian alien thing having given Malos back his weapon before Rex got close, I made sure to keep Jin and the cat girl within my peripheral vision. I had no idea as to if the cat eared girl and her tiger would try anything, her wanting to tell Malos off about fighting Rex giving me a bit of doubt about what her real intentions were, but that doubt was exchanged for hatred as I refocused on Jin. That masked monstrosity in human skin already attempted to kill the kid once, and I am more than happy to put a bullet in his head if he tries it again. Luckily, he seemed to be letting Malos handle the situation, but one wrong move and I'll probably use him as target practice.

My attention was still mostly on the battle and the bridge to the Malestrom however, so it wasn't an easy task keep an eye on them.

As the sword wielders clashed, the heavy storm battering down upon everything, and the persistent flames clinging to and illuminating the metal floor of the ship, creating an awe inspiring back drop that both obscured and silhouetted the fighters every move. At one point, Malos tried to break away from the fight, getting to higher ground by jumping, then aimed to attack the Maelstrom, which was just then starting to set sail after the rest of the crew got on board. I would have had to respond by shooting at him, if Rex and Pyra hadn't decided to first fired off a wave of flame at Malos, who blocked it, then quickly jumped up after him to continue the assault, forcing Malos to keep his defensive stance and subsequently forcing him down from the high ground to fight on even terms. Following the action wasn't easy through the rain constantly blurring my vision, but the flames that ever defiantly resisted the storm helped quite a bit in that department.

The battle seemed to be, in few words, hectic yet graceful. Both Rex and Malos were trying to slash at eachother, yet where one would strike, the other would either parry or block.

Rex would mix in some thrusts with his slashes, using the range advantage given to him by the flame beam coming from the middle of his sword to full effect, and seemed to rely on the flat of the blade for blocking. I also noticed he seemed to be using the momentum of the sword to leverage it on occasion, which was understandable seeing as while it was probably a somewhat decently sized longsword for me and Malos, it looked like a greatsword in the short brunettes hands.

On the other hand, Malos' energy sword, while not sporting Rex's range, sported the ability to morph between a few different forms for extra versatility. These forms being a long, curved blade similar in style to a flamberge that extended down the length of Malos' arm like a tonfa, a straight sword, and a forearm length buckler shield. These form changes seemed to give him a unique edge, as it allowed him to keep Rex guessing as to what he'd do next. Would he slash with the tonfa blade, would he trust with the straight sword, or would be bash your face in with the shield?

On occasion I'd hear one of them start shouting their attacks, which was a really dumb thing to do, but they were both doing it so I guess it was a fault they both shared to some capacity. Either that, or this was one of those anime-esque worlds where shouting your attacks gives you power, as dumb as that might seem, which seemed more and more plausible as the battle raged on.

After a few more swings from both sides, the two combatants backed off from each other, apparently having a standoff for a moment to analyze each other, before Malos rose from his stance and started to speak.

"You're good, kid." He spoke plainly, his tone mostly neutral as Rex started to charge at him again. "It's no simple feat to control the Aegis like that. However…" He paused, finishing in a more hushed tone as a swirl of some kind of dark energy formed in his left hand, which allowed him to stop Rex's sword mid overhead strike. Malos, possibly deciding it was time to end their little duel, full force punched Rex in the gut, while still holding the handle of his weapon, knocking the wind out of the little diver boy long enough to use his other hand to grab the kids sword arm.

I could feel my eyes twitching as I saw Malos fling Rex against the ground behind him like a ragdoll, Rex's bruised body stopping right in front of me since he had been sent rolling in my direction as his flaming sword landed a little farther back since Rex lost his grip. Since the Maelstrom had been successful in getting away, I had nothing stopping from running up to Rex's prone form and at least helping him sit, vaguely hearing Pyra call out to Rex while dealing with the lizard man.

"Took a beating there eh dude? Don't go passing out ye-"

"Don't get cocky, you little shit!"

"OH NO YOU DIDN'T YOU BULL WANKING BASTERD!" Without even getting to give some encouragement to the kid, I immediately rose to full height with a flame in my eye and a gun in my hand. I don't care if you're the devil himself or god in the flesh, NOBODY interrupts me and gets off without judgement! I would have shot Malos right then and there for his sin too, especially since the dark knight wannabe started charging toward us, had not a booming roar immediately made my ears ring.

I could feel my body flinching, taking a step back while my aim wavered, only to see that the cat eared girl, who was now riding the tiger she had with her, take her stance between us and Malos, who seemed to have also been stunned into place by that infernal roaring. This immediately had me a little confused. The cat girl in a yellow onesie, who was definitely with the enemy before, is now siding with me and Rex? Something is suspicious about this, but I'm gonna guess that this wasn't a part of their plan, if the face Malos is currently wearing is any indication.

"Get out of the way, Nia!" oh frickin' finally! Our mysterious neko savior does have a name! "Have you gone mad?!"

"You're the one who's off your nut, waling on a child!" and now she's telling him off. If this is an act it's starting off rather convincingly.

"Nia… I don't think you quite comprehend your position."

"I get it, but-"

"You're starting to piss me off!"

With a single bang, I immediately sent Malos reeling back with a fresh new hole in his shoulder, and drew everyone's attention with a pull of the trigger. Even the tiger Nia is riding seemed to be shocked by what I did, which further confused me, but I needed to put that aside for now. I didn't even bother to hold back a sneer as this action came to light, mostly because the kickback from the revolver hurt like hell when only using one hand.

Seriously, that officer from the walking dead must have used it pretty damned often if he's gotten used to the backlash from this thing.

"You don't get to be pissed off ya friggin' mahu. I'M the one who's pissed here!" Ignoring the expressions of surprise I was likely drawing from Rex and the newly named Nia, I pointedly aimed the revolver at Malos' head in case he decided to attempt some monkey business. "Now I don't care who you think you are, but that shot is gonna be your only warning."

"Who the hell do you think you are?! Don't stand in my way!"

"Fuck you too asshat, my day was perfectly fine before your retarded, cow-licked okole showed up." Well, that's a flat lie, but I can't exactly tell him how I actually ended up in this position. "Now I've nothing else to do but take that frustration out on you."

"Really now? You honestly think you'll get out of this alive? You should have left on that boat with those salvagers when you had the chance."

"You're supposed to scare me? I'll die of boredom before that happens. Do me a favor and just go cry me a river. At least nobody'll see you doing it with the rain pouring down like this." Yep, got him real salty now, I even got him to battle stance for me. It also looked like Malos was about to start coming toward me, which I would have greeted by, as a certain group of people would have put it, "popping a cap in his ass".

Pyra had other plans however, because as soon as she had a clear shot she apparently ran straight for the sword that Rex dropped. Rounding a nearby box with blade in hand, she ran at Malos full throttle and jumped clear over her blue scaled opponent, who had attempted to stop her advance, aiming for a much higher overhead slash with the blade. Likely due to the hole dug into his left shoulder not even a minute ago, the back handed black knight was forced for block the downward strike with his sword-tonfa-thing. This, however, proved surprisingly ineffective overall as Pyra, using what seemed like inbred gymnastic skills, somehow kept herself suspended in the air via the sword handle, before using the momentum from the clash to vault over Malos' head with a few upside-down twirls and landing behind him light as a feather.

This action led a new clash to ensue, with Malos pressing the assault and Pyra meeting it head on with a kind of graceful gusto I couldn't truly figure out yet. One thing was for certain though; as the red head traded blows with armored marauder, she kept taking steps back. I found this to be rather odd, as while the man was probably strong, she both had the extended range of her sword and her very apparent speed to work with, so my only guess as to this is that she's probably making sure she's just out of the range of her opponents sword.

Malos then dodged one of Pyra's diagonal slashes, going in for a slash of his own, only for the redhead to knock it away with a backhanded swing. This didn't deter the dark armored man however, as he used the momentum from the failed slash to twist into a roundhouse kick followed closely by spiraling as if he were a spinning top, his blade poised to strike at Pyra with each rotation. This was in vain however, as it seemed the added factors both his opponents superior speed, and his movements being impaired by pain in his shoulder, allowed the redheaded sword wielder to effortlessly dodge the attack by elegantly somersaulting backwards just out of range. This feat was made even more astounding by the fact she did so with only her left hand, her right hand being used to hold her sword aloft without even letting the extended blade of flame touch the floor.

If the dark knight was losing any steam from it though, he definitely wasn't showing it. Immediately after his spiral came to a stop, he dashed from his kneeling position towards Pyra. This charge was responded to by the red head ended off her apparent gymnastics routine in order to swipe at the air, sending balls of fire manifested from her sword hurling towards Malos. He wasn't having it though, as he used his sword-tonfa to swat at the flaming projectiles, which logically makes absolutely no sense, causing them to explode on impact, which apparently gave Pyra the perfect opportunity to close the distance and strike with an upward swing that was, unfortunately, also met with a swing from Malos, causing them to clash.

"You're pretty good for someone who's only just woken up." _'He's about to exposition dump isn't he?'_ I thought as Malos began to speak. I could vaguely hear Rex call out to Pyra from behind me, but that wasn't my main point of focus.

"This takes me back to 500 years ago… But what's the deal with that appearance? I'm guessing your goal is Elysium…" ' _Name drop with no explanation, thanks for that one batman.'_

"That is our dream!" _'Nice to know you're enthusiastic there Pyra, but would you kindly provide me some context while you're at it?'_

"Then I have no choice but to stop you!" The very second these words left his mouth, he ended the clash between their blades, and tried to pull the dark hand trick, essentially gathering the dark energy from before into his hand and attempting to grab Pyra with it. Being the ever agile girl she seemed to be, she simply leaped backwards to both dodge the grab and create some distance, even tossing in a few midair twirls, before landing a kneeling position with her sword being held behind her back.

My attention was, at that very moment, drawn to a giant black ship pulling up on Pyra's side of the boat. While I could have taken the chance to examine it in detail, my main concern was held at the fact that two giant rocket pods lifted into view from the top of the ship… and aimed directly at Pyra, who had absolutely no idea the ship was behind her.

' _Something tells me she's about to get broadsided.'_

"Pyra, watch out!" _'A little late for that dude!'_

It did seem, however, that life intended to prove me wrong, because Pyra seemed to recognize Rex's warning just as the ship started firing, allowing her to whip around and place her hands out in front of her, apparently creating a force field to protect herself. A thick cloud of smoke formed over where Pyra now stood, getting thicker with each hit she was blocking as the ship shook with each impact. Eventually, it seemed to stop, only to see Pyra be sent tumbling out of the cloud of smoke, skidding to a stop in our direction

"Pyra!" Rex shouted in concern as he immediately ran out towards her, not even giving me the chance to attempt stopping him. Once her got to her prone form, grabbed her shoulders and helped her into a sitting position. I would have run up there to scold him for running off, but I doubt I'd get there fast enough considering that ship was aiming for a second round. That's when I noticed that Nia, who was still riding her dang tiger, come between the two downed swordsman and the ship. As the unidentified black battleship aimed fired another volley, the tiger Nia was riding on took a low stance and roared, somehow creating its own force field with which it used to protect everyone.

' _A shield generating armored tiger mount… clever girl you are Nia, and lucky as hell."_ At this point I wasn't gonna question the weirdness, I'd save the questions for later. Right now? I'll just enjoy the awesomeness currently within view.

Strangely, or in my case awesomely, the shield generated from the tiger somehow held out for a lot longer than the one created by Pyra, attesting to my personal view of tigers being the best of the big cats, with the last blade resulting in a large explosion that still didn't break it. the knock back of the explosion did have an effect though, as while I was looking up at the height of the smoke created by the explosion, I saw Nia get flung out of the smoke, from maximum height, her arc of trajectory indicating that if someone didn't catch her, she'd likely fall off past the side of the boat into what I only now noticed to be a giant sea of clouds.

' _What is this, a cloudy version of water world?'_

"Nia!" _'There's our shonen protagonist, watch him go.'_ Seeing Rex run down the sloped side of the boat in an attempt to chase after the falling cat girl, I immediately thought things were gonna downhill. Not like I'm one to talk though, I went toward that direction too 'til I ran into the railing on the bow of the ship that I didn't know was even there. I even saw the blue suited brunette dive off the side after Nia. It looked like they were going to fall through that sea of clouds as I saw them disappear over the side of the ship, until I heard what sounded like a grappling hook firing, and a thin metal cable shoot into the sky with what looked like a small anchor at the end of it. I could only guess that the kid was probably trying to latch on to the ledge, but slightly misaimed so it went over instead. It didn't look like it was gonna catch anything as it was on its way down, but…

Feeling the need to act, I holstered the revolver that was still in my hand at the time and jumped over the rail. Using my left hand to, with what I can only call the greatest of luck, slip my middle and ring finger through the gaps between the anchors points and, using my right arm, kept myself balanced on the slippery sloped floor by holding onto the railing. As I held onto the anchor to keep close what seemed to be the only lifeline Rex and Nia had, I turned my head at the sound of footfalls splashing against the wet floor, only to see Malos beginning to walk towards me with his arms crossed and his weapon sheathed.

"That kid's a pretty tough one, but there's only one way this can end!"

"Sure as hell ain't gonna be because of you, ya friggin' mahu." Despite me answering that way, I could see the rocket pods on the enemy ship aiming again, likely towards where Rex and Nia were hanging around. In that moment, I couldn't really be blamed for assuming that there wasn't a way out, even if I could find out a way to help them survive the missile fire.

Light flashed, and there was what I thought to be the end… Had it not been for the fact that the light turned out to be something blasting the top of the enemy ship with a healthy dose of explosive napalm.

It was not much of a stretch to think everyone was pretty damned surprised to see this. I guess life decided to cut me a break on the punishment this time.

Mere seconds after such a lovely display of explosive force, I heard what could only be described as a piercing shriek from far away, while a large, winged silhouette descended towards the ships. The somehow still burning flames, which I feel should have been put out a long time ago by the storm, lit up the figure as it flew sideways between the ships. What I saw could only be processed by my adrenaline fueled mind in one way.

' _IS THAT A DAMNED DRAGON?!'_ Tis the only thing it could be as the little of what its appearance registered into my brain. Large wings, apparently stone scaled skin, giant frame and was very likely the one who caused the explosion from not even a minute before, there was no denying what such a beast was.

"Gramps!" _'Oh you cannot be serious Rex! You cannot tell me you've been raised by a dragon this whole time! This is not an episode of Fairy Tail, and your name is not Natsu!'_ even if the sound was feint, I could still hear Rex, so that at least let me know that he didn't plummet very far off the side of the ship

As the dragon flew past the ships, he, and I'm only guessing that because of Rex, turned midflight for another pass around, only it looked like it wasn't gonna be a friendly one. Infact, it looked a lot like he was gonna dive-bomb the top of the ship.

"Azurda…" _'So that's what Jin sounds like- Wait, was he referring to the dragon when he said that? That's actually a pretty cool name.'_

I wasn't really able to dwell on that thought however, because the newly dubbed Azurda ascended into the sky after flying right over the ship we were all currently on, only to start dive bombing downward while launching fireballs at the ship. While luckily none of them hit near me, I did see Jin preform a repeat of Malos' tune on a grander scale, by slicing the fireball that was heading his way into scattered embers. Illogical, but I guess in that way it's unique. From the smoke I saw Azurda change his flight path a bit. I wasn't exactly sure what he was going for, but it sounded like I didn't need to ask.

"Rex, get on!" _'Old and gravelly, kinda guessed the big dragon would sound like that.'_ I marveled as I heard the dragon call out to Rex. I looked down toward where Rex and Nia were likely dangling, and noticed Rex's right arm hanging onto the side, the metal wire I was currently holding the end of coming from the contraption that I'd seen on him earlier. Suddenly getting an idea, I connected the anchor to the railing, making sure it was safely secured, before immediately tugging at the wires length, which resulted in Rex being pulled up along the side with an unconscious Nia dangling from under his left arm. Now knowing that they were not cliff hanging for dear life, I unhooked the anchor just as I saw Pyra riding down towards Rex on the tiger, made sure the anchor was secured in my left hand again between my middle and ring fingers, then immediately sprinted down the side towards them. As I did so, I saw Azurda slam into the side of the ship, skidding toward them while Pyra reached down towards them from the big kitty's back. Just as Rex got pulled onto the armored feline behind Pyra, said feline now carefully holding Nia in its jaws as it ran, I was just lucky enough to reach them by the time as they jumped off the end of the ship, the dragon separating from the ship and swooping right under them for a landing.

As I myself jumped off, and somehow managed to land on the big buys back with the others, I grabbed onto his back which, surprisingly, had grass on it for stable grip, releasing the anchor from my hand once again since I no longer needed it as a possible safety line. Luckily it seemed Azurda was a good flyer, as even though he was going fast, I could still feel that his back stayed mostly stable ground so to speak.

Craziness kept it self-known however, as Azurda was being shot at as he flew away. A few flashes of white, a cloud of grey smoke with ringing in my ears, and then the darkness returned once more.

* * *

Authors Notes: Welp, here it is, my first maiden voyage into the world of fan fiction. Wonder how long it will take for anyone to notice this amongst the rubble.

So, here you all have it. the first major fanfic idea I feel confident enough to upload. not sure how it'll do, but what do I know? I'm open to any starter criticism that anyone who's seeing this is willing to bombard me with, so don't be afraid to comment. I'd like to warn anyone now that i currently don't have an upload schedule, seeing as this is my first time, so if any of you are interested in seeing more.. well, it'll depend on how much everyone likes it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing other then this story, and the person who's perspective your seeing in the story. The world, other characters, and all other assets are copyright of Monolith Soft.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

 _'Note to self; waking up with your head stuck in a tree is not fun, ever.'_ This was my immediate thought as I rubbed the back of my neck, having just removed the last of any splinters I might have had stuck to my head. I could feel the fatigue in my muscles, and I'm fairly certain my left shoulder might have dislocated during the crash, but luckily enough I didn't seem worse for wear other than that. To be honest, if someone gave me a fortune cookie that stated that such a thing could happen in the future, I'd be pretty damned incredulous. For a moment I sat there, just wondering how I'd managed to get out of that chaotic situation alive, but after a while of mulling it over, I just chalked it up to me being thick skulled. Once I made sure my shoulder was properly popped back into place, I check my supplies.

' _Nothing seems to be missing, though now the bag's a little soggy. Outside of a new round for the revolver, it looks like I haven't had any major losses.'_

Once I made sure I had everything, and loaded a new round into the colt python before holstering it, I looked towards the clearing I landed in and noticed I wasn't the only one here. Nia, the cat girl I believe, was just laying in the middle of the clearing, back against the ground and completely incapacitated. Her pet tiger, which was only a few inches behind her, was in a similar state of almost blissful slumber, had it not been for the back that it looked like they'd been hit by a speeding, drunk-driven 18 wheeler.

Shaking my head clear of any possible lingering fatigue, and popping my neck to rid it of building tension, I helped myself up and stretched for a bit before immediately walking over to their prone forms. Kneeling down next to Nia, I gently placed two fingers against the right side of her neck, next to her jugular, and felt relieved to find that she still had a pulse. Always good to check for that when someone's just laying around.

 _'Looks like you've still got a few extra lives on ya, eh kitty?'_

There wasn't any way of knowing how long it would take for her and the big cat to wake up, and i sure as hell didn't want to leave her here, so I simply sat back to rest my legs while I waited. As I took a seat next to her, I took a bit of time to familiarize myself with their appearances a little more.

Nia's appearance was most interesting, if only because there was a lot about her appearance I hadn't registered first time around. For starters, her figure was very lithe, her defined hips could be seen even with the somewhat loose body suit she wore, which implies she was very physically fit. Alongside her figure, I also noticed that she is actually a bit shorter then I'd originally thought, standing at about 4'9" instead of the initial five feet tall that she, and subsequently Rex, appeared to be. Her skin was just a slight shade darker then I'd initially registered, three faint markings now being visible as I took a close look at her. They weren't very complex markings, a simple set of three white marks that align themselves pointing toward the center of her face. One on each cheek, and one pointing down from her forehead, almost akin to arrows. Around her neck hung a white hood with red lining, likely modified to accommodate her cat ears that I only now noticed were rather large upon her head, which had two knee length coat tails dangling down her back on each side. The yellow suit she wears seemed rather puffy, mainly around the legs and forearms, which indicated it was probably more for comfort, but was still light enough for battle. I'd almost make a comparison to it being a slightly puffy hazmat suit without the hazard symbol and no protective glass to cover her face. She wears white gloves and boots with gold trimmed armor plating. The plating for her gloves wasn't much, a small plate running over the back of her hands connecting to a larger one at the wrists that extended back slightly over her suited forearms. The armor of her boots seemed to form an uneven cone, the back portion protecting only the back of her lower legs while the front portion protected both her calves and her knees, even extending up at a point to protect a bit of her thighs. On a side note, the bottom of said boots were lined red and the toe of her boots were pointed up like spikes, almost elf like in appearance. The chest armor over her suit, if you could even call it armor, was a simple white strip with gold trimming that only covered her mostly flat chest area. This "Armor" was matched by two thin metallic armbands that shared the same color scheme as the chest piece that were strapped around the upper part of her arms. The last thing of note was that she has a bandolier loosely hanging around her waistline, slanting down to the left from her hip, which held up a set of 3 knives, a small travel pack behind her back, and is where her twin chakrams were currently holstered.

The only thing that threw me for a loop about her, was that she didn't seem to visibly have a tail, but I was willing to guess that either she didn't have one, or her tail was inside her suit, which if the latter was true seemed rather inconvenient.

Her pet tiger was also intriguing to get a closer look at. Unlike normal tigers, this one had a lot of wild, and possibly very fluffy patches of fur growing along its legs and around its neck, giving the big kitty the mane of a lion with the muscle of a tigers frame. A perfect combination if you ask me. The stripes along the snow white fur happened to be grey with a dark blue tint. Aside from having no saddle, the tiger was decently armored without being weighed down, sporting segments of green armor with golden lining, centered mostly along its legs around the bases such as the shoulders and thighs. I could even see little armor plates on the back of each paw. The most noticeable piece of armor was a decently made, somewhat tech like, breast plate lining it's chest with a bright blue gem carved into the shape of a fang emblazoned in the center like a crest.

After their full appearance clicked into place for me, I allowed my eyes to wander about and view the surroundings. The clearing we ended up in seemed rather calm. Aside from the new hole in one of the trees where my head had previously been, we were surrounded by beautiful nature in every direction. Healthy, deep green forestry covered every inch of the place, be it the leaves softly shifting in the wind above, the moss on the trees that seemed to slightly glow with the scenery, or the very grass swaying calmly beneath us. The trees were extremely large, humongous even, making this place seem comparable to a rainforest in size, aided by the fact that the cover from the trees was so thick that it didn't even seem like any sunlight was shining through. The sunlight probably couldn't shine down here as much anyway, seeing as the trees seemed to dig up through a stone ceiling of sorts, implying that we were some kind of underground forest. Infact, some of these trees were seemingly so healthy they even spread a secondary set of roots through the rocky surface above, making the trees look like pillars that stabilize the cavern ceiling.

Looking around more, I also noticed a giant path had been carved out toward one side, a crash most likely being the case if the fallen trees along the path were any indication. The breeze was very fresh to take in, but with a hint of humidity that probably hinted a marsh of some sort was nearby. That would also explain the light volume of mist rolling along the ground, and the fact that the grass felt a little wet, as if it were still covered in morning dew. The sound of croaking toads was a nice bit of ambiance, along with the flickering of fireflies flitting about in the air. There were even some weird species of plant hanging off the base of a few trees sporting some kind of bulb like fruit that glowed as if it were nature's own version of a lamp. Truly, it seemed as if we landing in a mystic jungle of some sort.

My attention was drawn by a shine of reflected light making itself known within my peripheral of vision, to the sight of a sword stuck blade deep in a nearby tree. Making sure to not make too much noise, as to let the kitties have their cat nap, I got up and made my way over to the nature buried blade.

 _'I guess I wasn't the only thing to have a rough landing today huh?'_

Once I'd made my way over, I grabbed the hilt and started tugging on it. Luckily, the tree seemed to have a bad grip on it, as the sword slid out of the thick wood without much issue.

After pulling the blade out, I held I up and examined its condition. The sword felt oddly light for its size, I'd estimate the edge of the blade at about 4 feet long in total with a slightly shorter than average handle for two handing. The sword is one sided and curved back towards the tip like a scimitar, along with being about 6 inches wide. Actually, it almost looked a bit like an enlarged butterfly knife with only one handle. Speaking of said handle, it almost seemed like it was made of scrapyard parts; a sturdy metal pipe for the handle with a random set of pieces connecting the base of the blade to the hinge-esque crossguard indicated that it had a folding function of some kind. As I continued to look over the sword for any damages, a sense of familiarity started to flow through my mind. Suddenly, a revelation clicked into place.

 _'This was the sword Rex had on him before he started using that flame sword. He must have dropped it, but that means...'_ No doubt in my mind, the kid was likely somewhere around here.

Deeming the blade to be in good enough condition, I decided to give it a few test swings to get a feel for the weight should I need to use it. One man's trash is another man's treasure as they say.

As I practiced my form with the newly acquired sword, the fact that it felt lighter then I would have thought started to really bug me. I'm not weak, but I wouldn't think I'd be able to swing a sword of this size as easily as I was currently. To be fair, this thing isn't a damned buster sword, and the thing still had enough overall mass to provide momentum akin to an axe when swung, but the fact I could swing it with one hand still left me a bit confused. That's when I remembered that, again, Rex was the one who owned this sword. If he could use this weapon, likely with two hands because of his stature compared to the blade, then I guess it shouldn't be unreasonable for me to be able to use it as well.

After acclimating myself to the weapon, I leaned the back of the blade against my right shoulder and turned back towards where Nia and her pet kitty were sleeping, heading over to them before going back into my sitting position. After what seemed like an hour of peaceful silence, I saw Nia beginning to wake.

"Ugh, wha' hit me?" Nia decided that was the first thing she was gonna ask, apparently the pain in her head gaining consciousness before her noticeably bright amber eyes could regain their sight.

"Had a nice cat nap?" Noticing that I was the one who responded, she immediately jumped upright in surprise, wincing a fair bit due to her injuries, before looking towards me with wide eyes.

"Take it easy there, you're probably still injured from that whole fiasco before."

"You're that other person from the ship... the one that stood up to Malos."

"Yeah... That would be me I guess... Got anything else to say about it?"

"Why are you here?"

"Simple. I went with you all upon that dragon from before. What happened to it now is a mystery, but I can only assume it crashed somewhere nearby, considering the amount of debris in its wake." Cue pointing in said direction of possible crash.

"O-oh... I see..."

Awkward silence filled the void as I simply let Nia soak in the current situation. Probably for the best though, I didn't exactly want to escalate anything too soon-.

"My lady." _'JUMPIN' GERONIMO! DID THAT TIGER JUST TALK?! ALSO, WHEN THE HELL DID THAT THING HAVE TIME TO GET UP?!'_

"Ah, there you are Dromarch." _'Am I the only one who's surprised that a tiger is talking? On a side note, that's a pretty decent name for one. Extra points for originality there Nia.'_

"It is good to see you are safe."

As they began to talk about something that probably didn't matter to me as much, I found myself focusing on the blade I currently had weighing on my shoulder. _'If Rex is here, then it's possible he's likely deeper in the forest then we are. In that case, he and that girl Pyra are probably just now waking up as well. Should we wait for him? If he's passed us then should we just keep going?'_

The sound of Nia asking something pulled me off my train of thought. I looked up to see, and found her and Dromarch looking right at me, as if waiting for an answer.

"Um... What?" Was my reply. Hey, if you don't hear something, always good to ask for a repeat.

"I said, what's your name?" _'Of all the things... Well, maybe my middle name will suffice.'_

"Konane. What's yours?" _'It may hurt me mentally, but I gotta go with the act. Strange place, and likely not in my element, so gotta try to roll with the flow. At least I'm not lying about my name.'_

"Nia, and this is my Blade, Dromarch."

"Um... Blade? Call me crazy, but I'm fairly certain a tiger is not a sword."

"You don't know what a Blade is?"

"Not in the way you're saying it, no. Is that some fancy term for armored pet?"

"Armored pet? Do you really think so lowly of me?" _'Not sure I like the amount of concern in Dromarchs response. Side note though, he definitely sounds like a butler, which is absolutely amazing.'_

"Hey to be fair, this is the first time I'm hearing the word used in this way, so I'm just tossing a guess out there based on what I'm seeing so far. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but how am I supposed to know?"

"So you've never heard about Drivers either then?"

"Again, not in the way you're using it Nia. Actually, considering that you and that Malos guy are the only ones who've said 'Driver' in whatever context you're using, I am currently left clueless on the matter"

Awkward silence filled the space between us, Nia and Dromarch seemingly left speechless by my revelation. Silence so thick, it seemed Nia was intent on cutting a question mark out of it.

"You're serious?"

"What gave you the impression that I wasn't?" Was my honest reply.

I simply couldn't stop myself from chuckling like a hyena at the, to me, strange amount of frustration she seemed to be having due to my answer.

* * *

After a small bit of banter, we decided to keep moving forward along the path. I simply followed behind while still carrying Rex's old sword, Nia leading the way since she was apparently born in this land, while drilling me on the basic information about what 'Drivers' and 'Blades' were.

As we traveled along, though I had wanted to distract myself with lovely scenery, I couldn't stop thinking about the information Nia and Dromarch provided for me, so I put my mind on replay as I followed the cat girls lead in both senses of the word.

'Blades' is the term used to describe beings, both humanoid and not, who are awoken from blue gems called core crystals. These Blades, as their title implies, come equipped with a variety of weapon types, such as Dromarch's twin rings, which were the chakrams that Nia has equipped, and bestow that weapon to their 'Driver' for them to use in battle. Each weapon falls into one of three categories; Attack, Tank, or Healer, which affects their abilities and role in battle.

Blades can only be awakened either by the fated touch of someone who is able to become a Driver, or someone who already is one. Nia also mentioned that there were two types of Blades, those being common and rare Blades. Common Blades are the typical type of Blades, mostly robotic and plain in overall design and are very common among most Drivers. Rare Blades however, like Dromarch, have distinct and more diverse appearances and abilities that set them above and beyond the rest. These Blades are further diversified by being one of 8 elements; Fire, Ice, Wind, Water, Lightning, Earth, Light and Dark.

No matter what kind of Blade you run into however, they can all be recognized as Blades due their core crystal usually taking shape upon their chest area, almost as if engraved into the skin.

Blades draw their energy from a substance called either that flows freely in the air around us, which allows them access to a variety of powers which come in the form of Blade arts and Blade specials. Drivers themselves, after bonding with a Blade, become able to tap into the either as well, usually through their Blade providing a flow of it to them, which enhances their natural abilities and allows them to preform Driver arts. No two Drivers/Blades are the exact same, so arts for both can vary greatly. Rare Blades even have unique specials that are trailered to them specifically compared to common Blades who are more likely to have shared specials with each other.

The last thing of note, and is what has me contemplating the most, is that Blades are connected to their Drivers in more ways than just for battle. Nia didn't seem intent on describing the connection, but I didn't press the matter, as it seemed more important that we kept moving. Though I might bring it up to her again, I'd prefer to do it within the safety of city walls, or when we're not out in the open.

Our travel took us through the jungle that, as I had guessed before, had a sizeable marsh land we waded through as we ventured on. Observing some of the fauna, some seemed familiar, while others seemed rather weird, but all of them were new sights to see. One of the stranger creatures looked like a dark blue giraffe in frame for the most part, but had no spots, a shorter neck and muzzle, along with having catfish whiskers and two fin-like sails on its head. Another of the strange creatures roaming the marsh was essentially the equivalent of a hermit crab, but with a hollowed out rock for a shell and was about the size of a coconut crab. Of course, with the strange came the familiar, such as little salamanders swimming in the murky waters, or the enlarged butterflies that fluttered over head. The last of the weird creatures, one that we encountered after we left the marsh, looked like a cross between a rabbit and a ring tailed lemur with dark brown fur, if lemurs had three large fingers at the end of their tail to give it a kind of opposable arm.

After exiting the marshland, we found ourselves walking along a Cliffside. To our right was a large opening in the seemingly underground area we found ourselves in, indicating to me that we had actually been traversing a mountainside the whole time. The fact that the now apparent 'cloud sea', as Nia and Dromarch had explained before, was blanketing the area far below ours indicated that were at least a decent ways above what would be considered sea level, which helped me get a slightly better grasp of where we were.

I remembered Nia mentioning that this place, what some could assume to be this continent, is known as Gormott, Judging by the view, I could safely hazard a guess that it is a very mountainous, heavily forested region, and that the town of Torigoth that she and Dromarch are leading me to is in a higher location.

We soon came to a wide wooden bridge that spanned over a large ravine that lead to the other half of the path we were now trekking. The bridge was made of old, yet sturdy wood that created a stable and flat walkway for us to make our way across. Not a second after we all made it across though, an extremely large tree branch landed in the middle of the bridge, effectively blocking anyone from ever going back across the surprisingly hardy bridge that still stood despite the newly added weight.

"Well, at least it didn't land on us." Being my passing comment as we continued from there, not really having the means to remove said obstacle.

After following Nia for a while longer, we came upon a clearing with a large spring to the left of us, the calm waters seemed to be full of clean water that would definitely fill the quickly depleting stores in my hydro flask. A little past the spring, there seemed to be a pathway curving up to what would likely be the exit to this place. As per usual with forest paths, lush tall grass as far as the eye can see, practically blanketing all but the carved path that lay in front of us. On a side note, the entire path up seemed to be strangely lined with the 'glow berries,' the name I decided upon for the strange plants that had naturally bioluminescent fruit dangling from them, almost like they were lanterns used for guiding travelers.

"Hey Nia, Dromarch" I called out to them, signaling them to turn around. "Maybe we should rest here for a bit. Looks like the path ahead is gonna be a ways up, and I don't know about you, but I've also gotta fill up my flask with some fresh water."

"Running low already?" Nia's deadpanned tone said it all. "I told you before to stop guzzling water as we traveled didn't I?"

"Well it's not like I can help it if I tend to get dehydrated very quickly."

"Oh whatever. Let's just get on with it so we can get going. I'd like to get to Torigoth before sundown."

"Alright, alright, no need to get worked up over it." With that said, we walked over to the nearby spring. While I still had no idea what city Torigoth was, I was always more interested in seeing new places than hearing about them.

However, our plans for getting fresh water came to a screeching halt when a GIANT TOAD leaped out of the spring and landed in front of us, water freely cascading down after it was forced out of place by the oversized amphibian. I could immediately feel my eye twitching in frustration as I looked at the damned thing that dared to interrupt me from getting my much needed hydration.

' _Oh god damnit Zitz, I did not sign up for battletoad boot camp!'_

The animal in question wasn't exactly much different from what you'd get from a regular green toad, if you jacked it up to the size of a single story house and gave it dangling rabbit ears.

Its appearance wasn't my concern though. Two main ideas flooded my mind for why this monstrosity appeared now of all times. Either this thing was just passing by, which was the more hopeful ideal, or this thing was hungry, and judging by the fact that frogs will literally eat anything they can fit in their mouths, I wouldn't be surprised if the latter option were the case. I was immediately proven right when me and Nia just barely dodged backwards to prevent its damned tongue from trying to grab us.

"Not today froggy." I taunted under my breath. This thing sure as hell wasn't going to move away by itself, so it looked like me and Nia would have to drive it off.

"Why the bloody hell is a Brog this close to the path?!" Nia shouted from my left. _'Huh, that's a weird one.'_

"Uncertain my lady, but it would appear this one has been agitated." Dromarch calls out to Nia, approaching her side before turning to the newly named brog and crouching as if ready to pounce at a moment's notice. "We will have to deal with this foul creature quickly if we wish to have our moment of respite."

Nodding in acknowledgement, Nia grabs her twin rings and takes to her fighting stance. Bending her knees to keep her posture low as she crosses her arms over each other with her weapons facing the enemy, the bladed edges of her chakrams now glowing with what I could only guess is either energy. However, despite me not having the best eye for subtle things, I noticed Nia wince a bit as she took her stance, meaning that any lingering injuries she might have had before didn't get to heal all that well. Hell I could even hear her hiss in pain like an actual cat.

"You ok there Nia?"

"I'm fine! Worry about yourself would ya?"

"Well excuse me for at least attempting to show concern."

If she was about to reply to that, she didn't get the chance to since the damned toad decided to take another chance at grabbing us. I wasn't having though, as I intercepted the tongue with a sword thrust, making the damned toad reel in pain and pull the slimy thing back into its mouth. This didn't deter the oversized toad from trying though, as it launched its self into the air and attempted a sumo style body slam. We immediately backed out of range of the attack, but the following shockwave seemed to knock Nia off balance along with the resulting wind pressure pushing us back from the point of impact.

As the Brog got to its feet and started strangely walking over to us, at least strange to me because I've never seen a toad walk before, Dromarch took a defensive stance in front of Nia. "My lady, leave this to us."

"I'm not just gonna abandon the both of you." _'Yep, ms. kitty cares. Always something about the cats eh?'_

I was tempted to simply charge forward now and start slashing at the brog, but then out of nowhere a large fireball flies in from stage left and strikes the damned thing with the force of a speeding fastball. Bringing my attention to the left, I was met with the sight of Rex charging towards us with his new sword engaged, Pyra following close behind. _'Heh, cavalries here.'_

"We're here to help, Nia!" Rex proclaimed as he joined our side of the fray.

"Rex?! What are you doing here?!" _'Really Nia? He's here to help of course! Someone needs to get you a shonen jumpstart on the troupe's page, because he fits the makings of a protagonist to a T'_

"My Lady, Konane, now's our chance! Let's strike!" _'Now that's initiative Dromarch!'_

"Hell yeah! Nia, Rex…" Both of them immediately took to their fighting stances as I called out their names. "Let's croak toad!"

With that battle cry let loose, I sprang into action. Charging head first at the giant amphibian with Rex in tow, Nia bringing up the rear. The brog made one last attempt at using its tongue to grab someone, only for it to grab the now flaming edge of Rex's sword and reel back a newly burnt appendage. This was gonna be fun.

Not as fun as I thought it was gonna be, but that was still fun. All it took was Rex and Nia ganging up on it while I snuck up behind it, landing the finishing blow by waiting til the thing had sumo body slammed again to leap into action and stab it through the head. Amphibians have thin skin, so it wasn't a surprise that the sword buried deep into the creatures skull; the worse part was pulling the damned thing back out. Now the whole blade is bathed in blood and stinks of toad mucus, not a pleasant smell by any means. Shaking off that concern, my focus went back to Nia as she started to speak to Rex and Pyra.

"So why are guys even…? Well, I guess that's a stupid question." _'Still a valid one Nia.'_

"Seriously, it's good to see you. And you all are alright" Rex replied, a caring smile plastered on his face.

"Right back at ya." Nia responded in kind, myself settling for a simple nod of acknowledgement. "Hey, by the way. What happened to the big guy who saved us? The Titan?" My eyes immediately widened, contorting my visage into an 'oh shit' face as those words dived right off Nia's lips.

' _Holy hell in a frozen handbasket, how on earth did I forget about Azurda that quickly?! I'd think even my shit memory would recall a giant dragon saving me! Speaking of him, wasn't he being shot at by a battleship before we got here? Is he still alive?'_

My concern was immediately smothered by a flat deadpan as a fluffy little… creature of some sort, crawled out from behind Rex's head, the tiny thing likely having been hidden in the helmet hanging behind Rex, and simply stated "Are you talking about me?"

At that moment, I couldn't help what hopped aboard my train of thought. _'…Somewhere in this vast multiverse, Daxter is probably raving about this being a copout of his character arc. Lovable pal turned furry companion via near death experience? Sounds eerily familiar if you ask me. Don't tell me Azurda got shot with dark eco or something similar, we don't need another form of precursor.'_

"Wait, what? How?" I heard Nia exclaim next to me, and honestly I found myself being VERY curious as well.

"That's sort of a long story." _'Oh don't give me that cop-out Rex!'_

"Then shall we set up camp?" I threw the idea out there, drawing everyone's attention as I looked toward the now fading light. "Looks like it's getting late, so why not share your story over a good bonfire?"

"A fair suggestion." _'Thank you Dromarch.'_ "What do you think my lady?"

"Sure, lead the way." And with Nia's reply, we set about making camp for the night, starting with me going to the spring to clean my sword.

* * *

By the time night befell the clearing, we had set up a small make shift camp site. Granted, we didn't have any tents, so we only had the fire place to keep us warm, but it was good enough. Especially since I'd accidentally gathered a bit too much firewood for us to use, which gave Rex the bright idea to start roasting pieces of the Brog we just killed over the fire on a stick. I have absolutely zero clue as to why he would want to do that, me not being a particular fan of frog legs, so I just sat there, not even bothering to fathom his reasoning as I rummaged through my backpack.

We all sat in a circle around the campfire, Pyra to my left and Nia to my right, the awesome armored tiger butler sitting to his mistress' right, with Azurda and Rex, in that order, sitting off to Pyra's left. Rex had his new sword, Pyra's weapon, placed in the same holstered position as his old sword; horizontal across the back of his waistline. In fact, I'd actually asked him about his old sword, having been using it this whole time, and he didn't seem to mind me using since he has Pyra's sword, so I now officially have something to defend myself with.

Apparently the sound of me rummaging through my bag got everyone curious, which I only noticed in a doubled state when I pulled out a ziploc bag and saw everyone staring at me.

"What? Not exactly keen on having frog legs for dinner yaknow." I remarked towards everyones faces, pulling out three large pieces of jerky from the ziploc bag before closing it and shoving it back into my backpack.

"What is that little… thing, you had that jerky in?" _'Not so elegant with words eh Rex? At least you could tell it was jerky and not something else.'_

"A ziploc bag, nothing special." My confusion only grew when he seemed confused by my answer.

"Where did you get those? I haven't seen anything like 'em when I was traveling with gramps."

"Really? I wouldn't think their all that uncommon. They're a simple convenience item that could be bought almost everywhere back home. Enough about that though, tell us all about how you, Pyra and your little companion here got into this mess."

From there, we listened to their story, myself doing so while chewing on some nice spicy jerky.

The story they told essentially went along a similar line to ours; woke up in an unfamiliar territory and had to find their way around. The difference here is that it seemed they woke at a slightly later time then us, and what happened when they finally met up with Rex's 'Gramps'. Azurda had apparently sustained life threatening wounds all over, and was seemingly about to die ala Master Oogway; fading into cherry blossoms, or in this case ether. At least he was going to, had it not been for him essentially pulling a deus ex machina out of his ass and cellular regenerating himself into a 'larval' stage, which apparently explains his current fluffy appearance. Weirder yet, Rex apparently lived on Azurda's back for most of his grown up life, not being much since when I asked Rex confirmed himself to be 15 years old which could all compile to explain his height being the same as Nia's. Apparently everyone in this world lives on titans since no land is available anywhere else due to the cloud sea, which immediately made me think of the Bionis and Mechonis situation from Xenoblade Chronicles, but I didn't let them know about that. Another thing of note is that Rex said he was from a place known as Leftheria, and that this world is known as Alrest, place names are always something you gotta keep in mind.

The young blue suited diver's story also had a few other key factors from what I could tell, some of which shed some serious light on the situation that happened before. He was on that ship with Nia and her former crew because he accepted a salvaging job from some big wig named Bana in a place called the Argentum Trade Guild. The girl next to him, Pyra, is a special type of Blade, known as an Aegis, who was apparently Malos and Jin's main objective of retrieval at the time. The last bit of key information I found interesting in his story is that, via a promise he made to Pyra in exchange for being revived, he was now dead set on finding a way to the world tree, known as Elysium. This promise of essential shared life is both why Rex now has an X shaped gem shining on his chest, and why an X of the same size was now missing from Pyra's rosario shaped core crystal. Side notes being that our little diver boy is now the Driver of this legendary weapon, and that said Blade is, comparing her height to that of her short driver, about 5'4".

Out of the whole conversation, I still had two lingering questions in my mind, and I felt the need to ask them… but it looks like I have to hold those thoughts for a moment.

"I see. So you two are off to Elysium." Nia reaffirmed, for which she got a small nod from Pyra. Nia then looked up to the sky in thought, before bringing her attention to the tiny titan sitting between Rex and Pyra. "Listen, I never thanked you properly. For saving us, I mean. Dromarch said that you… carried us all the way here."

The big cat in question responded in kind. "We owe you our lives, Titan."

"No need to thank me." Azurda stated in a calm tone, befitting of someone old and wise, but awkward coming from his tiny stature. "After all, you're the ones who saved Rex."

"Don't mention it" Nia commented, her head a down to her side for some reason that I couldn't quite place. Lifting her head, she continued the conversation. "So, you Titans can regenerate. Pretty handy."

"This isn't something just any old Titan ca-"Azurda replied haughtily, puffing up his chest with pride, before Rex immediately cut him off with, "You can retire that line now."

"Excuse me?!" The tiny titan snapped back at Rex. "I'd like less of that attitude! If you had listened to me and declined that reckless job to begin with, we wouldn't be in this mess! 'Take a nap' you said, like I was some kind of doddery old man…"

"Okay, okay, I get it! I'm a terrible disappointment. Look how sorry I am!" At this point, I knew this little scuff they were having would last for a bit, so I simply closed my eyes, focusing on finishing the last of my jerky. Hell, Nia already had a head start since she was laying her back against Dromarch, who had decided to lay day behind her, as if he was some large plush pillow.

"Can you not muster even a shred of sincere remorse?"

"Sorry, but I can't."

"What?"

"If I hadn't taken that job, they'd have gotten their hands on Pyra. I couldn't let that happen. No way. They can never take her."

Finally finishing my last piece, I simply left out a soundless sigh as I opened my eyes, focusing my sight on the campfire. As if seeing it play out amongst the softly burning flame, I allowed myself to reflect back to that moment on the ship. Everything was like a blur in that moment, yet a look back revealed the stupidity that happened in those few moments.

I stood my ground against something completely unknown, out of my league most likely, without even thinking ahead of what problems I might have just allowed into my life. I already have to deal with the fact I'm on my own, and being an idiot against Malos was not a good idea in any regard. If I end up getting offed to damn quickly, I won't even be able to find out if anyone else in my ohana even made it to this world. In the grand scheme of things, I didn't even do all that much in that ship skirmish either. All I did was get a lucky shot and call him out, and that's possibly only because the lighting was just bad enough to disguise the motion of me pulling out the damned revolver during his monologue. I could barely keep up with the movements of the fighters, I'd probably have been useless in the battle since I didn't have a melee weapon at the time, and to top it off I probably would have ended up dead if the flash stepping masquerader join the fight.

"Meh, at least you all got something under your belts. Rex stood up to the dark armored mahu, Nia and Dromarch saves his ass from being shot down by a rouge warship, and Pyra is some legendary weapon wielder or whatever." I found myself thinking out loud, letting the facts be known to myself and everyone else. "On the other hand, I wasn't able to do much in the grand scheme of things."

"That's not true." _'Welp, here comes the shonen pep talk session. I should really get better at not thinking out loud at the wrong time.'_ "You were the one who allowed the Salvagers to escape to the Maelstrom and sail away, plus that weapon you used back on the ship put a real dent on Malos when I couldn't even lay a finger on him."

"So did Nia and Dromarch, yet that cow-licked dingbat could still brawl like nothing happened. Compared to them, all I did was basically give him a flesh wound. Let's not even get started on how badly things could have gotten if that masked one with the katana decided to intervene."

"If that's the case," Nia rebutted, deciding to join this one sided conversation. "Then at least let us thank you. After all, from what Dromarch told me, you also had a part in keeping the two of us alive." _'Et tu Nia?!'_

"Indeed." _'Oh not you too Dromarch!'_ "Had you not caught master Rex's unfortunately poorly aimed shot, I'm fairly certain both of them would have fallen into the cloud sea, which would have made escaping from that dastardly situation next to impossible. For your efforts, you have my sincerest gratitude." Dromarch ended off with his own form of a bow, Azurda himself along with Rex and Pyra also nodding in approval.

"…Alright, you got me there. Either way, we got out of there with no major loses, and that's good enough I guess." I conceded this, as it was likely the one point they had on me, and one they probably wouldn't be giving up anytime soon. "I'd like to bring up something to everyone's attention though."

"What would that be?"

To Rex's confusion, I pointed to Azurda, but not specifically at just him. Out of everything about him I could possibly question there is something about him that I felt the immediate need to mention since before we started to make camp. One completely out of place thing about his tiny, furry body that stood out like somebody who just got the cactuar thousand needle treatment.

"If Azurda here-" The fact that I just used his name drawing everyones immediate attention. "-is truly a Titan… Then are Titans also Blades?"

"Wha- what are you saying?!" Rex stammered in surprise, the very concept seemingly not making sense to him.

"Where the bloody hell did you come up with that?" Nia asked, her tone too showing that such an idea seemed shocking.

"Well, I think it's a pretty obvious concept when you put two and two together here." I stated simply, as my eyes locked onto the shining, clear blue core crystal shining upon the fluffy creatures chest. "From what Nia and Dromarch explained to me before, Blades always have a visible core crystal on their bodies, which Azurda's current state of body clearly possesses. Yet he is classified as a Titan, whereas others are simply normal blades. While there must be some factor that makes them slightly different, as his full Titan state is clearly much older and much more powerful, I'm fairly confident that a connection is there via present evidence. Take it as you will, but it's something I think you all should probably take into consideration."

This seems to enrapture everyone's curiosity, as they all gazed at Azurda with pondering glances, which seemed to make the tiny titan fairly uncomfortable with the situation.

Standing up and stretched out a bit, I decided to make a small announcement. "Ok, with all the chatter out of the way, why don't you 'alrest' up for tomorrow, I'll take night watch." I couldn't help but chuckle like a hyena when their tired minds eventually figured out the pun I'd just made.

* * *

Night watch is something I've always been fond of. Whenever everyone else fell asleep, it simply allowed me time to enjoy the relaxing night air, the sight of the beautiful lunar body that watched over this darkened time of day from on high, and the wonderful view of the world in its most calming state.

Sure, every kid's worse nightmare is being awake alone at night, I used to share that sentiment, but one can very easily come to appreciate the night and its glory. For daytime dwellers, it is a moment of respite as they allow themselves to drift into the land of dreams. For those who are able to keep their eyes open to the darkness, yet are still weary due to the light of day, they can see both peril and prosperity alike, though to a lesser degree. Lastly, for whom the night is their thriving force, we see all the world has to offer, in a time that many others can't take advantage of.

Essentially, I'm just a night owl by nature, and I love every moment of it.

From my sitting position on a large rock within range of the campsite, I took my time watching over everyones prone forms. Currently everyone, except a seemingly restless redhead who decided to stand near the water's edge, was sleeping within the vicinity of the campfire. Rex simply laid back with his hands behind his head, Dromarch simply laying on his front with Nia spread out along his back in what looks like the most uncomfortable sleeping position I've ever seen. Cat girl indeed if she's able to sleep like that.

Looking toward Pyra, who was a little ways south of our camp, she just seems to be standing there, looking out along the clear waters of the spring. The parts of her that were adorned with green gems glowed beautifully in the low light, her core crystal and earrings being particularly bright tonight. Her face seemed to be completely neutral, as if she was deep in thought or zoned out. The scarlet aegis' momentary time alone didn't last for much longer though, as I saw the little fluttering fur ball we now call Rex's gramps float his way over to her.

"Hello there. Still awake, I see." I heard Azurda state as he made his way over to Pyra's side.

"I can't seem to sleep." Pyra stated simply, her tone slightly somber before perking up as she began to speak with the stone dragon turned fur ball. "It's good to see you again… Azurda." _'So they've got history? Interesting.'_

"Likewise. Though you've changed a lot since we last met, Pyra."

"I suppose I have. A lot's happened."

"Yes it has. I wanted to thank you for saving my dear Rex." _'Much praising, much wow'_ "And I need to know – what you told him, is that what you really intend?"

"Yes. It is my true desire."

"I see. Well, that's good enough. I have no reason to doubt you, Pyra."

"That said… I do have one other goal now."

"Jin and Malos" _'The plot soup thickens, but might need a bit more cowbell.'_

"I cannot allow them to continue with their current course." _'Hold fast to your determination there Pyra, or you're gonna burn out.'_

"The fate of an Aegis never changes…"

"Right…"

"And you're going to get Rex mixed up in this?"

At this, Pyra's determined expression sombered a bit, leaving Azurda to sigh before continuing.

"I'm not blaming you. No matter how hard you tried, that boy would find some way to get involved." His attempt to reassure her seeming causes some reaction, as the red head brings her hands up to her chest, just under her core crystal. The tiny titan noticed this, and possibly noticed the state of her core crystal.

"I see, half of your core crystal is missing." _'A little late on that revelation Mr. Fluffy Buns, but A for effort at least.'_ "Seems you've taken on quite a burden."

"Azurda, I…"

"Promise me you'll take care of Rex."

"I will." _'Heavy handed promise there Pyra, and to a titan gramps no less. That flame of yours better burn bright, because you're gonna need all the heat you can get to stop this one from getting cold feet.'_

With their conversation ended, I turned my attention back to my night watch. Things didn't seem to get too complicated, so I was able to simply enjoy the peaceful silence of the night once more. Occasionally I'd go over to the wood pile and toss some into the campfire so that everyone had a source of warmth for tonight. The fireflies danced in the lightly moonlit air, and the mystic mist of the forest was ever present throughout the night, providing me a relaxing atmosphere as the night went on.

* * *

As dawn broke upon our little camp, everyone began to awaken. By the time they did, I'd pretty much cleaned up what was left of the fireplace, some leftover wood was still in the pile for a possible second set of camp goers should any cross this particular path.

Nia had been the first to wake up, and had noticed me up and about even though everyone else was asleep. She did decide to ask if I was up all night, since nobody woke her or possibly anyone else for a night shift, which only resulted in her being somewhat shocked when I simply answered her with a, "Yes I did." If she was going to continue her line of questioning, she didn't have the chance as everyone else started waking up as well.

With a loud yawn, Rex got to his feet and used his arm to rub the drowsiness from his eyes. "Right then, we should probably try to find a town or something. Does anyone have any idea where we are?"

"This is Gormott. A province of the Ardanian Empire." Nia replied, almost as if she had practiced saying that for years. "You must have seen the Gormott Titan before?"

"Yeah, only from a distance, though."

"We're somewhere around its belly." _'Interesting information for later.'_

Rex couldn't help but smile as he glanced around the clearing one last time, seemingly taking in the beauty of the surrounding area for the first time. "So… This is Gormott, huh?" Then like lightning, a revelation seemed to strike him. "Hang on a second, Nia – your ears. Are you Gormotti?" _'Um, excuse moi? That's a thing?'_

"Well done, genious. Took you long enough!" Nia stated, a sly smirk crossing her face as she crossed her arms.

"Gormott is the land of my lady's birth." _'Thanks for the clarification there dude.'_

"Wow, well that's reassuring."

With a nod I decided to join the conversation. "I gotta agree with ya there Rex. Always nice to have a native showing us the way in a new environment. Especially since this is all still new to me."

"Oh yeah!" Nia stated, realization saturating her tone now. "You're new to Gormott too ain'tcha? I guess you've never seen a Gormotti either before now."

"If we're being honest here? Yeah, I haven't. The whole situation with Titans, Blades and Drivers isn't exactly clicking into place just yet. All of them are concepts that were never present back home, so it's not the easiest thing to get a grasp on."

"Seriously? Where on Alrest do you live if you don't even know about Titans?" _'I figured Rex was gonna get nosy.'_

"A very secluded archipelago of islands." Not a lie really, Hawaii is a very out of the way place in the pacific ocean if you're not either someone born and raised on the islands coming back to visit, or a tourist on vacation. "Problem is that I know for a fact I have no way of getting back because I've never been in this situation before. I'm so out of my comfort zone it's not even funny."

"Oh chin up Konane! I'm sure we can find it if we look at a world map in town or something."

"I'm don't think it's gonna be that easy dude, but thanks for the vote of confidence I guess."

"Anyway," Nia continued, attempting to get us back on track. "If we wanna get to Torigoth, the first step is to get out of this forest. Keep heading up, and we'll hit the plains soon. The town's that way."

"Brilliant. Let's get going!" With that exclamation made by Rex, along with making sure we packed everything up, we started back down, or in this case up, the path to Torigoth.

The hike didn't have too much of note from there, as we essentially followed Nia's lead, so I at least got to sight see a little more. We did come to part of the path where we had to climb some vines, which annoyed the fuck out of me since I was never the best at the rock wall climbing exorcise if I was being honest, but afterwards there was nothing to worry about.

While the overall area was more of the same, except much higher up, I did notice two new creatures I hadn't seen before in the marshland, along with a few more of the large butterflies fluttering about.

The first of which looked like what you'd get if you took a green caterpillar, gave it an armored exoskeleton, and made it the size of a full grown pitbull. Needless to say, it was overtly large for what would normally be such a small bug, which I guess could also apply to the butterflies. Now that I think about it, the air around here is much more pure and fresh than anywhere else I've been before, which I could likely attribute to the overgrowth of natural plants in the area. The trees themselves were probably making the air near perfect for such creatures to flourish, since in ancient times bugs did require a near indefinitely larger amount of oxygen then modern times to be as big as they were.

The second one, to some, seemed like it would be something out of a nightmare. Take the caterpillar's new size, and apply it so a pitch black four legged spider. Not a welcome thing for arachnophobias anywhere, of which I was luckily not, but I still decided to keep my distance from the creature due to one thing; poison. I could care less for their looks, but if they proved to be poisonous then serve me a fat helping of NOPE and beam me the fuck up Jim!

It seemed like only a few minutes, which means an hour could have went by, but whatever the amount of time, we eventually got out of the forest, and from the cliff we found ourselves upon, we gazed out to see a large sprawling plains. The distant melody of chirping of birds, herbivores and carnivores alike living in close harmony with each other within the vast open fields, all under a gloriously shinning-. _'Oh god damnit MY EYES!'_

Before the searing rays of the sun could finish its attempt to scorch my eyes, I snapped my eyes shut and quickly reached into my bag, grabbed my shades and immediately slipped them over my eyes. _'Holy h-e-double hockey sticks, why is it that every time the sun shines, my eyes feel like Hades himself was doing surgery on them?!'_

The others seemed to notice the franticness of my actions, because Nia immediately turned to me when she heard me digging through my bag. "You alright Konane?"

"Yeah, yeah just... shit, my eyes hurt now..."

"Not the biggest fan of sunlight are ya?"

"I'll be agreeing what that statement 'til my dying breath." After giving my eyes a bit of time to adjust, I continued to marvel at the view.

The Plains seemed to be split off into two sections, one being the regular half with the other being a floating island connected to the rest of the land by various large intertwining tree roots. All along the back was a large uprising cliff, creating a truly mountainous scene that could only be scaled by climbing the roots of the insanely large trees that grew up along the cliff face, as if intertwined with the rocky terrain. Near the far side of the plains, there lay two large springs that had a variety of fauna drinking from it, the most notable being an absolutely massive, blue feathered bird of some kind. Two other animals I could make out in the plains were a fiery orange version of what people could call a dire wolf, and what seemed to be a cross between a gorilla and a buffalo. Can't make out the finer details from so far away, but the fact that they were even somewhat. The plains themselves seemed to be a flat extension of cliff side, which initially confused the fuck out of me, until I looked up the mountain ridge to see that the titan we were on… is a giant stone goat? Yep, that's a goat head, I can see the horns and everything.

' _Things are just gonna get weirder and weirder from here aren't they?'_ Putting that thought aside, I looked along the open field, sweeping my view to the right as I did, and along the last bit of cliff side I saw the town we were looking for. From what I could tell at this distance, the whole town seemed to be made of wood, which seemed abundantly appropriate with the amount of that natural resource that this Titan seemed to have.

In a sense, this entire Titan seemed to be a walking natural paradise. The animals don't seem to be off put by the fact half of the land seemed to be just hanging on by seeming threads, and the entire eco system seemed to be running just fine without an overabundance of human population as far as I could tell. In the famous words of Ian Malcom; "Life finds a way."

"Oh my goodness." Pyra's voice bathed blissfully in awe as she spoke. "What a wonderful view!"

"Spectacular indeed." _'Big kitty getting a little prideful eh?'_ I couldn't help the thought popping into mind as Dromarch spoke next. Being honest with myself though, he had a right to be that way. Not only was the view a breath taking one, having secretly snapped a photo with my phone when nobody else was looking, but he was just showing admiration of his home. Afterall, being Nia's Blade, it wouldn't surprise me if he was awakened on Gormott, which by default in my mind made it his home just as much as it was hers.

"Yeah, this is great!" Rex decided to excitedly chip in. "Especially after slumming it on Gramp's back for so long." _'Shots Fiyerd.'_

"Hmph. It served you well enough!" _'Return fire by the tiny one!'_

Nia playfully shook her head at their antics and decided to point out that Torigoth was at the far edge of the plains, in 'plain' view I might add. She also calling it the "biggest city in Gormott," which confused the fuck out of me since, as far as I know, it looked to be the ONLY city on this Titan. An oversite that's all the more apparent considering Titans, from my understanding, have a largely limited amount of living space on them despite their massive size.

"I'll accompany you as far as the city. After that, I'm afraid you all are on your own." _'Oh god damnit, don't pull a Blake on us now!'_

"On our own? What for?" I chimed in, feeling a need to get some answers on this situation. "You don't really have anywhere else to go, so why don't we just stick together?"

"Really? You should know full well why I can't be seen with you."

"What, because of those guys you happened to be stringed along with back on the boat?"

To my slight disbelief, she affirmed my suspicion with a nod. "I haven't known them for very long, but you know. Their still my crew."

"Do you make a habit out of lying to yourself or something?" This immediately shocked her into full attention. "That men in black wack-job was willing gut you like a prime piece of ahi tuna, and probably would have if I hadn't cut him off at the pass. You're willing to call a living turd like that, who easily resolves verbal conflict with murder, a part of your 'crew'?"

"That's a maybe." Nia continued after I had finished, her quickly fading resolve ringing clear in her voice at the sheer distain that had leaked into my tone as she held her head down. "But they're the closest thing I have to family."

At that revelation, I could only feel my eyes narrow, and my inner anger begin to truly boil. She considered them family? While there could be reasons for that, it still doesn't make a damned lick of sense to hold onto such a thing. Ohana is supposed to support you and be there for you, a collective of people you have accepted and that you can rely on through thick and thin. What she's holding onto clearly isn't familial in any regard, I'd even wonder if its borderline stockholm syndrome considering the possibilities, but that seemed unreasonable.

Either way, something had to be said, and a point made clear. While Rex seemed to only manage calling out her name is a consoling tone, I needed to be the one to put my foot down on this matter. "Look, I don't know what you've gone through to make you feel like that, and maybe in some morally grayed out way you could possibly have a reason to harbor some attachment to someone within that 'crew' of yours. However, as far as I've seen in this circumstance, that ass hat in the black armor gives a pretty good educated guess as to what the rest of your little brigade is gonna do if they find you."

"I know, but-"

"NO BUTS! This needs to be said, so I do hope you can excuse the interruption. What your hoping to walk back to is likely just gonna lead to a death trap. Either way you slice it, betrayal to someone like Malos just means a loose end to cut down. Family is supposed to be there for you, not want to cut you to pieces when you feel the need to speak for yourself. Now, if by some miracle they take you back, then maybe that could be your way of saying I was wrong. If you die on the way back however, then don't say I didn't at least provide you a proper warning."

With my voice made clear, and my thoughts spoken, our group fell into silence. After a few moments of waiting for them to adjust, taking the time to cool myself off a bit, I turned to the path leading down from the cliff, seemingly into the plains, and called back for them to hurry up as I started walking forward. As we continued down the trail, one singular thought popped into my mind.

' _By the nine, what have I gotten myself into?'_

* * *

Author's Notes: Welp, this chapter happened. If I'm being honest, this took longer to make then I'd like. I am uncertain as to what all of you with think of what happened here, but if it's a mess then I guess it's one everyone is gonna see. Leave a review if you'd like to, and maybe critique me if you think I need it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing other than this story and the character who's perspective you are reading. All other assets are copyright of Monolith Soft.


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